Every third Monday in January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated everywhere in the United States … except Powell High School.
MLK Day is a very important day in our country; it is a time to honor a man who spent his life advocating for the civil rights movement. However, at our school, we aren’t granted a day off. We are instead given a day off for the celebration of Columbus Day on the second Monday of October.
But just because we don’t recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day at Powell High School, it doesn’t mean it isn’t celebrated elsewhere.
“Brultee Elementary in Washington gave us Martin Luther King Day off, and so did Glacier View Junior High,” junior Avalon Rainer, who moved to Powell from Washington, said. “Because it’s, like, a national holiday, and it’s celebrating someone who had a very important role in American history.”
Senior Phu Nguyen has also attended several schools outside of Wyoming, all of which do indeed celebrate MLK Day.
“I went to three or four high schools before I went to Powell High School – three in Iowa, two in Omaha,” Nguyen said. “Every single MLK day, we had it off. I think it’s very weird how we have indigenous day off and not MLK Day.”
All of these schools in other states celebrate the man who gave us the “I Have a Dream” speech and helped fuel the fire of the Civil Rights Movement, so why doesn’t Powell High School?
“I think we don’t have school off that day because, as the superintendent is putting the calendar together, he has to put in a lot of things to get in that 175 days, so we can end before Labor Day and start around Memorial Day in August,” Principal Tim Wormald said. “I know when we have President’s Day off in February, that’s more in between Christmas break and spring break, and so I think he’s thinking about when to have a day off more than valuing a specific date.”
While there may be different opinions on whether the day should be taken off or not, teachers create their curricula with a Civil Rights-themed unit to ensure that King will never be forgotten.
“Teaching US History, I approached that topic a little differently,” U.S. history teacher Mr. Nick Fulton said. “I cover Martin Luther King extensively during the Civil Rights unit. We look at him as an activist, his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, and the letter from Birmingham Jail, which changed the course of the Civil Rights Movement.
The most important thing to remember, regardless of whether we get the day off school or not, is that MLK’s work for Civil Rights should be admired and never forgotten.
“Martin Luther King Jr. is one of those guys you don’t want to forget,” Mr. Wormald said. “The work he did for Civil Rights – it’s really important to remember. That doesn’t necessarily mean we need the day off school, though. I mean, we don’t have school off on 911 or the day JFK was killed.”
